As some people who’ve known me for a few years know, I used to adhere to a social theory called ‘complementary holism‘ or ’liberating theory‘ whose intention, like other radical social theories, is to try and explain oppression and exploitation. I’ve since realised that I agree with Marxism, though until now I’ve yet to publically explain the transition. Though the transition has been in the making for a few years, the realisation came more quickly over the past two. When it finally all came together, that quickly integrated well in my practice, and the wonderful events of 2011 temporarily eclipsed this goal. Now, in the period between the events of an amazing fall and what will – we can hope and work for – be an even better spring and summer, I thought it useful to pause and explain the logic behind the political transition, in case it can be of use to anyone during these exciting and dangerous times. The following is the first article in a series on why I think Marxism is the best theoretical framework for understanding history and capitalist society and, most importantly, for understanding how to overthrow it.
‘Liberating theory’ or ‘complementary holism’, claims a “commit[ment] to understanding and paying serious attention to race, class, gender, sex, sexuality, age, ability, and authority without elevating any but instead recognizing the intrinsic importance of each, and their entwinement, and understanding that we must confront the totality of human oppression”. This quote comes from a statement I wrote for the now defunct ‘new Students for a Democratic Society’ (SDS) for one of its conventions (“A Statement on Totalist Politics”). When I left SDS I helped to found a small socialist cadre group – the Organization for a Free Society, or OFS – with several like-minded individuals, a good portion of which I was a member of SDS with. To this day OFS maintains a statement of principles close in essence (and in wording) to the statement I submitted for conventional approval in SDS. It has two other founding documents which elaborate on these principles.
The statement was written in response to a perceived inadequacy in Marxist thought. In reality – a mix of distain for Stalinism (who supported various tyrants like Saddam Hussein), and a misunderstanding and ignorance of what genuine Marxism is and what it claims.
“If it depended on the inflammatory “propaganda” of revolutionary romanticists or on confidential or public decisions of the party direction, then we should not even yet have had in Russia a single serious mass strike. In no country in the world – as I pointed out in March 1905 in the Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung – was the mass strike so little “propagated” or even “discussed” as in Russia. And the isolated examples of decisions and agreements of the Russian party executive which really sought to proclaim the mass strike of their own accord – as, for example, the last attempt in August of this year after the dissolution of the Duma – are almost valueless.
“If, therefore, the Russian Revolution teaches us anything, it teaches above all that the mass strike is not artificially “made,” not “decided” at random, not “propagated,” but that it is a historical phenomenon which, at a given moment, results from social conditions with historical inevitability. It is not, therefore, by abstract speculations on the possibility or impossibility, the utility or the injuriousness of the mass strike, but only by an examination of those factors and social conditions out of which the mass strike grows in the present phase of the class struggle – in other words, it is not by subjective criticism of the mass strike from the standpoint of what is desirable, but only by objective investigation of the sources of the mass strike from the standpoint of what is historically inevitable, that the problem can be grasped or even discussed.” – Rosa Luxemburg, “The Mass Strike, the Political Parties, and the Trade Unions“, 1906
Many liberals show their true colors around things like the healthcare debate. Force people to buy private services? Sure, no problem, they’re fine with that. What if you’re against that? Well, then, you must be a reactionary! Meanwhile, did they stand up for universal healthcare? Nope, that’s too radical. Obama “couldn’t do *EVERYTHING* his first term. Just wait until he gets re-elected, then the ‘real’ Obama will come out.” Can we legalise pot (and drugs generally)? They are divided. Only if we tax cannabis at $800 a pound (I’m not kidding). They won’t even touch the subject of any drug besides cannabis.
If you are a liberal and are siding with extremely regressive taxation (the Obamacare “fines”, $800/lb taxes on cannabis, high taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, consumption taxes (which they pretentiously call “sin taxes”) generally) and state coercion to defend private corporations and control people’s self-determination of their own bodies then you are standing on the wrong side of the line.
We should fight to impose steep taxes on the rich and seize the assets of the health insurance and drug companies. That money can be used build a comprehensive, public, single-payer healthcare system (including things like talk therapy, abortion, contraception, medical marijuana, medicinal psychedelics, sex/gender reassignment surgery & medicine, needle exchange, healthcare for soldiers, etc etc – healthcare for each and every community and medical need). We should force the government to legalise drugs and release all drug prisoners. Individuals with the advice and guidance of doctors can decide what to do with their bodies just fine.
“For Marxists the concrete analysis of the concrete situation is not the opposite of ‘pure’ theory; on the contrary, it is the culmination of all genuine theory, its consummation, the point where it breaks into practice.” - György Lukács, Lenin, A Study on the Unity of His Thought
“Rampage by U.S. soldier kills up to 18 Afghan civilians” by Laura King of the Los Angeles Time, 11 March 2012.
16 Afghan civilians were murdered by a U.S. soldier who went on a rampage in the Afghan village of Alkozai, including 9 children, 4 women, and 3 men. At least 5 others were wounded.
“The shooting early Sunday took place in Panjwayi district outside Kandahar city, in a village called Alkozai. U.S. military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was believed that the assailant had suffered a mental breakdown.”
In the past several hours the L.A. Times has removed the word “rampage” from the headline. It now reads: “U.S. serviceman kills 16 in Afghan village shooting, officials say”.
“Anti-U.S. sentiment flared into deadly riots after the Koran-burning at Bagram airfield came to light. American officials have said the action was a mistake and offered profuse apologies, but some Afghans, including lawmakers and senior clerics, brushed aside the apologies and called for harsh punishment of those involved.”
“During more than a week of nationwide protests over the burning of the holy books that left at least 30 people dead, six U.S. service members were shot and killed by Afghan soldiers or, in the case of two of them, a worker at Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry. Two of the American troops who were killed were deployed in Kandahar province.”
This Week in Poverty: Welfare Reform—From Bad to Worse by Greg Kaufmann, The Nation, 9 March 2012
Bill Clinton’s “Welfare Reform”: “the number of US households living on less than $2 per person per day—a standard used by the World Bank to measure poverty in developing nations—rose by 130 percent between 1996 and 2011, from 636,000 to 1.46 million. The number of children living in these extreme conditions also doubled, from 1.4 million to 2.8 million.”
via Critical Reading
Microfinance: myths and reality by Danielle Sabai, International Viewpoint - March 2012 (IV446)
“Recent events have thrown another light on microfinance and its effects on poverty. In autumn 2010, a wave of suicides took place in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh which has the highest rate of microfinance institutions in India. More than thirty people who had had recourse to microcredit killed themselves because they could no longer meet the repayments. A first wave of 200 suicides had already taken place in Andhra Pradesh in 2006 for the same reasons.”
Unarmed Black Teen Gunned Down By Neighborhood Watch Leader After Being Deemed Suspicious by Danny Gold
“George Zimmerman, a 26-year-old member of the local neighborhood watch, saw Martin and called police to report a suspicious man in the community. He tailed Martin in his car. He had a loaded pistol on him. The police told Zimmerman they would handle it.
“For some reason, Zimmerman didn’t obey. Minutes later, a number of local residents called police to report a fight. A gunshot was heard. Martin died 70 yards from the house he was staying in. Zimmerman was arrested and then released. He was carrying the pistol legally and has claimed that he was acting in self-defense.
“Said Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. in an interview with the Huffington Post, “For some reason he (Zimmerman) felt that Trayvon, the way that he was walking or appeared seemed suspicious to him.”"
At least eleven Palestinians killed, four critically injured, as the terrorist israeli state bombs gaza tonight
via Socialist Workers Party (Ireland)
Rosebell Kagumire, a Ugandan blogger, responds to #kony2012 phenomenon
This piece originally appeared on SocialistWorker.org.
March 8, 2012
GROWING UP in the Hudson Valley under the reign of conservative George W. Bush, Green Party Mayor Jason West stood out as someone who seemed willing to stand up for principle. He violated New York State law when, in his capacity as mayor of New Paltz, N.Y., he married lesbian and gay couples, becoming part of a nationwide debate on marriage equality that continues to this day. In a conservative environment like upstate New York, this was very significant, especially for LGBT youth who suffer from depression and high suicide rates.
When Occupy Wall Street led to a Occupy movement that spread across the country this fall, an encampment was set up in New Paltz, gaining steam from the already strong Occupy Poughkeepsie camp on the other side of the Hudson River.
On December 15, 2011, in response to the birth of Occupy New Paltz, Mayor West wrote: “The [New Paltz Village] Board is…unanimous in our opinion that, given the clear First Amendment protections covering the occupation, we do not have the authority to remove the encampment. By any measure, Occupy New Paltz has the community’s blessing.”
“Reach for the book hungry one – it is a weapon!” – Bertolt Brecht
For about $24 plus tax / shipping you can get four classic books by Lenin – “State and Revolution”, “What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement”, “Leftwing Communism: An Infantile Disorder”, and “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism”.
How to do it? Simple, click each of the links below (or which ever of the books you want), and click add to cart (red button, right side, below text). After you’ve added the last one, you should be in your shopping cart (there will be a list of books; if not, click here), and you can click the red “check out” button to pay with Haymarket Books.
Here are the links:
“What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement” (US$7.50)
“Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism” (US$5.50)
“State and Revolution” (US$4.95)
“If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged. By violation of the Nuremberg laws I mean the same kind of crimes for which people were hanged in Nuremberg. And Nuremberg means Nuremberg and Tokyo. So first of all you’ve got to think back as to what people were hanged for at Nuremberg and Tokyo. And once you think back, the question doesn’t even require a moment’s waste of time. For example, one general at the Tokyo trials, which were the worst, General Yamashita, was hanged on the grounds that troops in the Philippines, which were technically under his command (though it was so late in the war that he had no contact with them — it was the very end of the war and there were some troops running around the Philippines who he had no contact with), had carried out atrocities, so he was hanged. Well, try that one out and you’ve already wiped out everybody.
“But getting closer to the sort of core of the Nuremberg-Tokyo tribunals, in Truman’s case at the Tokyo tribunal, there was one authentic, independent Asian justice, an Indian, who was also the one person in the court who had any background in international law [Radhabinod Pal], and he dissented from the whole judgment, dissented from the whole thing. He wrote a very interesting and important dissent, seven hundred pages — you can find it in the Harvard Law Library, that’s where I found it, maybe somewhere else, and it’s interesting reading. He goes through the trial record and shows, I think pretty convincingly, it was pretty farcical. He ends up by saying something like this: if there is any crime in the Pacific theater that compares with the crimes of the Nazis, for which they’re being hanged at Nuremberg, it was the dropping of the two atom bombs. And he says nothing of that sort can be attributed to the present accused. Well, that’s a plausible argument, I think, if you look at the background. Truman proceeded to organize a major counter-insurgency campaign in Greece which killed off about one hundred and sixty thousand people, sixty thousand refugees, another sixty thousand or so people tortured, political system dismantled, right-wing regime. American corporations came in and took it over. I think that’s a crime under Nuremberg.
This morning I had a wonderful breakfast conversation with my grandma. She read a letter to the editor on the topic of the current media and political circus around contraception where a reader pointed out that Hitler was never excommunicated from the Catholic Church. She was clearly dismayed, noting that she and my (“step”) grandpa were excommunicated from the Church when they got married, because both were divorcees, my grandma having divorced my abusive biological grandfather. They lived happily married until my (step) grandpa passed away from cancer.
Such are the priorities of the leaders of the Catholic Church. Abuse is fine. You can’t divorce abusive husbands. Hitler was fine. The Church collaborated with him. But birth control? That needs a “debate”. Even when 85% of Catholics support the right to birth control and 99% of women will use birth control in their lifetime.
The Church is serving a very destructive role at the moment. We need comprehensive healthcare. Yet the Catholic Church, in opposition to the opinions of the overwhelming majority of of its members, is saying that one component of healthcare is “sinful” and that Catholic health services should be except from providing whatever services it chooses.
Its almost unbearable to listen to the President these days. He talks about “religious freedom”. But what “freedom” is there in denying services that the vast majority of people want access to (because they need access to it)? The media circus is meant to distract us from the need for comprehensive healthcare reform – and to distract from the insurance industry giveaway that was Obama’s healthcare program.
Thankfully, it seems, that not many people are falling for the attempts at divisions.
“Listen, Agnes.
I am working-class.
And that really does make a difference. I know what’s useful,
and what isn’t.
I know the price of things,
and I know how to give things up.
I know what it is to struggle -
these tough little lessons
I dont think you people ever learned.
I hold tight, and I do my work.
I make posters for good causes.
Even if they get torn up, I make them, even though we live in a country
where theory falls silent in the face of fact,
where progress can be reversed overnight,
where the enemy has stolen everything, our own words from us,
I hold tight, and not to my painting . . . not only to that.
Pick any era in history, Agnes.
What is really beautiful about that era?
The way the rich lived?
No.
The way the poor lived?
No.
The dreams of the Left
are always beautiful.
The imagining of better world
the damnation of the present one.
This faith,
this luminescent anger,
these alone
are worthy of being called human.
These are the Beautiful
that an age produces.
As an artist I am struck to the heart
by these dreams. These visions.
We progress. But at great cost.
How can anyone stand to live
without understanding that much?”
-Gotchling, a character in Tony Kushner’s play A Bright Room Called Day, set in Weimar Republic (Germany) in the 1930s as country falls to fascism. Tony Kushner is the author of Angels in America.
(Source: Wikipedia; click to view full size image)
Here is a picture of the charred remains of the residents of Tokyo after the U.S.’s firebombing campaign of 9-10 March 1945, which killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians and left millions injured and homeless.
Last year in the United States a mere 20 Muslims and Arabs were accused of involvement in terrorist plots or association with terrorists, with few actual plots attempted, with many instances of government entrapment and frame-ups reported in recent years (which must be put in the context of a well-funded government war on Arabs and Muslims, including FBI spying and illegal CIA anti-Muslim programs run in conjunction with local police). Aside from the fact that we can’t trust the racist courts of the 1% in these matters, individual plots – - mostly done out of desperate frustration and retaliation against the most violent and racist imperial power the world has ever seen, and sometimes done at that government’s prompting – - are defined by the ruling class as “terrorism”, yet the incendiary- and atomic-bombing of Japan are praised as bringing “peace”. The interested reader can look to Glenn Greenwald’s excellent writings to better understand how meaningless the term “terrorism” is, and how hypocritical its usage.
Someone recently commented that while the attack on Pearl Harbor (a military target) is mourned and remembered, the U.S. government’s mass murder of millions of Japanese civilians, supposedly to bring about “peace”, are ignored – and when they aren’t ignored, they are praised. Mass murder, racist imperialism, and the promotion of fear through atomic and incendiary firestorms are aren’t called “terrorism”, but rather “peace”. Well, look here. This is capitalist ‘peace’!
“To pit national or racial oppression against class exploitation is a sophomoric sociological enterprise; it is not Marxist analysis. That people of color can fall across class lines – a few of them – has befuddled our thinking insofar as we are metaphysical and not dialectical. Class exploitation and racial and national oppression are all of a piece, for in their joining lay the victory of capitalist relations.” – Eleanor Burke Leacock, Myths of Male Dominance: Collected Articles on Women Cross-Culturally
“At the end of the 1920s, advertising beat the drum to spread marvelous news: “Fly, don’t ride.” Leaded gasoline made you go faster, and going faster meant getting ahead in life. The ads showed a car going at a snail’s pace, and the embarrassed child inside: “Gee, Pop, they’re all passing you!”
“Gasoline with lead additives was invented in the United States, and from the United States a barrage of advertising imposed it on the world. In 1986, when the U.S. government finally decided to outlaw it, the number of victims of lead poisoning was incalculable. It was known all along that leaded gasoline was killing adults in the United States at a rate of five thousand a year, and causing irreparable damage to the nervous systems and mental development of millions of children.
“The principle authors of this crime were two executives from General Motors, Charles Kettering and Alfred Sloan. They have gone down in history as generous benefactors of humanity. They founded a hospital.” – Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone
Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone is a wonderful book of poetic short stories, telling stories from history, always from the prospective of the downtrodden and oppressed. Almost all of the stories are between a few paragraphs and 2 pages. Great subway, bathroom, before bed reading. You can literally open the book up randomly whenever you have a few spare moments. No matter what page you find yourself on, you won’t be disappointed. Check it out today.
“We call our dialectic materialist, since its roots are neither in heaven nor in the depths of our “free will”, but in objective reality, in nature. Consciousness grew out of the unconscious, psychology out of physiology, the organic world out of the inorganic, the solar system out of the nebulae. On all the rungs of this ladder of development, the quantitative changes were transformed into qualitative. Our thought, including dialectical thought, is only one of the forms of the expression of changing matter. There is place within this system for neither God nor Devil, nor immortal soul, nor eternal norms of laws and morals. The dialectic of thinking, having grown out of the dialectic of nature, possess consequently a thoroughly materialist character.
“Darwinism, which explained the evolution of species through quantitative transformations passing into qualitative, was the highest triumph of the dialectic in the whole field of organic matter. Another great triumph was the discovery of the table of atomic weights of chemical elements and further the transformation of one element into another.
“With these transformations (species, elements, etc.) is closely linked the question of classification, equally important in the natural as in the social sciences. Linnaeus’ system (18th century), utilising as its starting point the immutability of species, was limited to the description and classification of plants according to their external characteristics. The infantile period of botany is analogous to the infantile period of logic, since the forms of our thought develop like everything that lives. Only decisive repudiation of the idea of fixed species, only the study of the history of the evolution of plants and their anatomy prepared the basis for a really scientific classification.
“Marx, who in distinction from Darwin was a conscious dialectician, discovered a basis for the scientific classification of human societies in the development of their productive forces and the structure of the relations of ownership which constitute the anatomy of society. Marxism substituted for the vulgar descriptive classification of societies and states, which even up to now still flourishes in the universities, a materialistic dialectical classification. Only through using the method of Marx is it possible correctly to determine both the concept of a workers’ state and the moment of its downfall.
“All this, as we see, contains nothing “metaphysical” or “scholastic”, as conceited ignorance affirms. Dialectic logic expresses the laws of motion in contemporary scientific thought. The struggle against materialist dialectics on the contrary expresses a distant past, conservatism of the petit-bourgeoisie, the self-conceit of university routinists and … a spark of hope for an after-life.” – Leon Trotsky, “The ABC of Materialist Dialectics“, December 1939
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